Transcript

00:00:00

>> South Africa will quit the International Criminal Court. The country says its membership conflicts with diplomatic immunity laws. The announcement deals a fresh blow to the struggling court, and it's angered the political opposition. Reuters South Africa Bureau Chief, James Macharia.>> One of the biggest concerns about the decision by South Africa to exit the ICC is because South Africa is seen as a leader in Africa.

00:00:27

And this will send a signal to other African countries that they, too, can pull out of the ICC. There has been discussion about leaving the ICC before. In January, this year, at the Africa Union meeting in Addis Ababa, there was a decision taken that African countries can look for ways and means to exit the ICC, but this decision would be left for each individual country to take.

00:00:52

>> Pretoria announced its intentions last year. That after the ICC criticized it for ignoring a court order to arrest the Sudanese president when he visited, who's accused of genocide and war crimes. Africa's government accuses the ICC of pursuing a neo-colonial agenda in Africa. Nine out of ten of its investigations have been based in the continent.

00:01:14

The South African government says it is still committed to the fight against impunity. Whilst the opposition, the Democratic Alliance, says it will file a court order application to derail the plans. The ICC sits in The Hague with 124 member states. It's the first legal body with permanent international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

00:01:37

It's secured only 5 substantive verdicts in it's 14 year history, all of them on African suspects.